[/floatr]Guardian: "Death of a Salaryman" by Fiona Campbell
Kenji's 40th birthday begins, like any Monday, with the packed bullet-train to Tokyo, where he has spent his entire working life in the light entertainment division of a TV company. On arrival his birthday is celebrated; by the day's end he has been dismissed. At first, he pretends to his family that nothing is amiss, continuing his daily commute only to haunt the drinking dens and noodle bars of Tokyo. Then a chance meeting with a travelling salesman encourages him to work the "pachinko" arcade machines; until his furious wife discovers his redundancy and arranges a job in the post room of a bank. Yet Kenji is on a surreal trajectory, and soon finds himself in charge of a bizarre reality TV show. Once his mother-in-law becomes involved, the results are predictably disastrous. Fiona Campbell's comic caper is an entertaining overview of Japanese society's collision with the worst excesses of western culture....more...
Just published in the UK and due out in the US next month. Judging from the reviews, the author has resisted making her debut novel a "foreigner in Japan" affair.
